Share one Eudora folder between multiple users

Dec 10, '02 08:15:26AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

The idea is to have shared access to the Eudora Folder from multiple user accounts on OS X. You do this by changing the ownership of the Eudora Folder and all its contents upon login, so this change is transparent to the user. Here's how to do it...

Instructions:

  1. Move the Eudora Folder to a central location. I chose /Shared/"Eudora Folder"

  2. In the Documents folder of each user, set up an alias to the central Eudora Folder. I simply Command-Option dragged the Eudora folder to the proper locations. You end up with /Users -> username -> Documents -> "Eudora Folder," which is the alias.

  3. The command to change the owner is:
    chown -R username path/to/central/Eurora/Folder>
    It is easiest to put this line in a shell script. I used "John Doe" as the user who is going to be made the owner of the Eudora Folder:
    #!/bin/sh
    # this script changes the owner of the Eudora Folder to John Doe

    echo "Changing Eudora Folder owner to John Doe..."
    chown -R johndoe /Volumes/Operator/Users/Shared/Eudora\ Folder
    echo "Done!"
    Notice that I have moved my Users directory to a different partition. The standard location is /Users. I called my shell script "setUpEudora". You now have a shell script which will make johndoe the owner of the Eudora Folder (once you set the execute bit). However, it will not work as is. If you were to run this from Terminal, you would have to type...
    sudo chown -R johndoe /Volumes/Operator/Users/Shared/Eudora Folder
    ... because Unix prevents normal users from reassigning file ownership. To make this work automatically, and without sudo, do the following...

  4. Make the script setUID and set the shell script's permissions to rwxr-xr-x:
    chmod 4755 /path/to/setUpEudora/
  5. Change the owner of setUpEudora to root. I used X-Ray for this, but the command...
    sudo chown root /path/to/setUpEudora
    ... will work. Be prepared to enter your administrator password when asked. You now have a shell script which will change the ownership of the Eudora Folder when you run it in Terminal. There are a couple more steps to make this even easier to use...

  6. Create an AppleScript with the command:
    do shell script /path/to/setUpEudora
    Compile this script as an application, and set it to not bring up a startup screen. I called my application "MakeEudoraMine". We are almost done now.

  7. Go to the System Preferences -> Login Items, and choose MakeEudoraMine to startup at login.
That is it for johndoe. He now has three new files in his Documents Folder: the alias to the centrally located Eudora Folder; the setUpEudora shell script which makes him the owner of the Eudora Folder; and the MakeEudoraMine AppleScript which runs at startup to execute the shell script.

To allow Jane Doe to also have access to the Eudora Folder, she needs the three items, too. Have Jane login, then:
  1. First, make her an alias of the Eudora Folder.
  2. Make her a version of the shell script with "janedoe" substituted for "johndoe". Set the file permissions as before.
  3. Make her a copy of the AppleScript, with the correct path to Jane's copy of MakeEudoraMine.
  4. Set the applescript to run on login, as before.
Notes:

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